Red and the Husk of Frost
by KingKiller6
Summary: Red is finally down from Mt. Silver. It's been a while, and he wants to know how powerful he is. He goes to test his mettle at the PWT in Unova. Red/harem, Super strong Red, B2W2 story.
1. Prologue

A.N. – So this story is actually a culmination of months of ideas randomly popping around in my head. My previous stories mainly dealt with Red as he started out his journey and so on, but after reading a bunch of stories I realized that what I enjoy the most is when he is coming down from Mt. Silver after many years and the resulting situations. So I decided to try my hand at one of those, and here we have it. The start is probably very similar to many out there already, but the rest will be different, I promise. It's Red, but put into the B2W2 game. I already have the first twenty five odd chapters mapped out, but nothing is set in stone. Looking forward to your reviews and suggestions!

 **Prologue**

It was evening time in Viridian City. The young man stood outside the building he had called his workplace for over half a decade and thought about the letter he had received that morning. He ran his hand through his spiky brown hair and pulled out the document in question. It was on the finest quality paper, with a familiar letterhead and seal. He read through it again.

 **Dear Blue Oak,**

 **The Pokemon League, in collaboration with the Driftveil Gym, is pleased to invite you to the first edition of the Pokemon World Tournament to be held in Driftveil City, Unova beginning October 1** **st** **and lasting for a month.**

 **Based on your status as a past or current Champion and as a past or current Gym Leader, you are eligible for the following competitions –**

· **Driftveil Tournament**

· **Kanto Leaders Tournament**

· **World Leaders Tournament**

· **Champions Tournament**

 **You may participate in however many you would like to. Each competition will be held separately and on different dates, allowing you ample time for the rest and recovery of your pokemon.**

 **We request that you RSVP regarding your attendance and the competitions you will be participating in. All competitors are expected to report in at Driftveil City on the 29** **th** **of September where they will be briefed and their pokemon will be registered.**

 **Looking forward to your participation,**

 **Yours truly,**

 **The Pokemon League President**

There was more, but that was just outlining each of the competitions Blue was eligible for. He had received the letter in the morning, just when he was entering the Gym. It had been wedged into the doorway, and had fluttered down when he opened the door. It was not a standard protocol for official League communication, but the seal, the letterhead and the signature were genuine. He supposed that with the scale of the tournament, there were too many Trainers to reach out to and following the standard format would be a waste of time and resources. After his initial perusal, the very idea seemed incredulous. A World Tournament?! Everybody leaving their Gyms and homes to go to a far off region for a month? What would be the scale of such a tournament? The sheer number of Trainers would make logistics a nightmare! The regional League competition itself was a horror and this would be that times six!

But then his brain caught up and he realized that this was needed on various levels. Each region claimed to have the strongest Trainers but none could prove it. His researcher's brain kicked in. Each region would know where they stood in world with regards to Trainer strength, combined Gym strength, individual Gym strength. The regional Leagues could balance out their Gyms better, or even the Elite Four.

Blue could feel his blood heating up. He _would_ attend. He _would_ participate. He _would_ be involved in the research and analysis. He had been contemplating proposing just this sort of study within Kanto for some time now. He hurried home to draft his reply. Many questions of his would be answered later this year. And of course, the biggest argument of them all – which Trainer was the strongest in the world. His reflex thought was of eight years ago, when he gained his Champion status, and lost it, and of the Trainer who he lost it to.

A.N. – What do you guys think? It's not going to be just the PWT. In fact it's going to be less of PWT and more of travelling Unova. Sorry the prologue is so short, but I had originally planned to jump straight into chapter 1, but this idea struck me while I was writing so I added a prologue.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The same Trainer was in an existential dilemma. He had spent the last eight years training his pokemon atop of Mount Silver, the highest known peak in the world. Everyday he bore freezing winds, bone chilling frost and for what? To develop his skills as a Trainer and to strengthen his already powerful pokemon, of course. There had been no doubt about it when he had made the decision to train up here. He had beaten Blue to become the Champion of Kanto, but just barely. At the end, it had come down to one pokemon each – his Charizard versus Blue's Blastoise. Despite the type disadvantage, Charizard had managed to wrangle a victory using airborne guerilla tactics, relying on the slow Blastoise to be unable to counter. And so, Red had been crowned the youngest Champion in the world. Blue was a few months older than Red, else that record would have been held by him. They both had been only thirteen then.

Red, always a quiet child, could not stand the paparazzi and the attention that the Champion title brought. He had made enough money during his journey and from the Champion prize to be able to retire and live off the interest. But battling and training pokemon was his passion and he couldn't give that up. He wanted to go somewhere quiet, where people wouldn't be able to reach him, and train his pokemon in peace. At first he tried the cape near Bill's house. It was quiet, true, but it was also easily accessible. Men used to bring their girlfriends and wives down from Cerulean City to 'watch the Champion train'. It became known as a romantic hotspot and the number of visitors only went up. So Red had to find another place to train. The abandoned power plant seemed like a good idea, but it was being refurbished to power the train to Johto. The Seafoam Islands were his next choice but they were being colonized by the Cinnabar Island refugees. Out of ideas, he had gone to Professor Oak.

The last word in Kanto, Professor Samuel Oak was a former Champion-turned-researcher, who lived and worked in Pallet Town, where Red had been born and grown up. In fact, it was the professor who had given Red his first pokemon. There was nobody alive who knew more than Oak about the surrounding areas. Travelling elsewhere was not an option; travel between the regions had not opened up yet. There had been a cold war brewing between the regions for some years now and the result of that was an absolute embargo. The only options were in and around Kanto. After hearing of Red's distress, Oak had looked thoughtful. He had said, "There's only one place I can think of where you can both train and be isolated. It's not a safe place- the pokemon there are quite strong and the weather conditions are a bit extreme."

Red hadn't cared. He had faced powerful pokemon before, even in the wild. After coaxing the location from his mentor, he visited his mother to say goodbye. As usual, she was full of questions. No, he didn't know when he would return. Yes, he had enough food and supplies. Yes, he had packed enough clean underwear. After giving her a last hug, he sat on his Charizard and took off for Mount Silver. He hadn't left it since.

He had trained harder and harder for the last eight years. Which was the crux of his current existential crisis. He had trained so hard because that was what he was good at. But he was good at one other thing – battling. Both were tightly bound, like knowledge and power, or day and night. Each complemented the other, made it more enjoyable. He really was in a philosophical mood today. He hadn't been like this since Venusaur had produced that funny plant which Charizard set aflame by mistake. Red had inhaled some of the smoke and his head had felt funny for the next few hours. He had also been more pensive than usual and prone to sudden laughter fits. His appetite had also drastically increased for that time period. Looking back, it was a pretty pleasant experience all told…

Red shook his head to bring himself back to the present. He had been training for eight years now, but what was he training for? There were no battles to be had here. Well, except for that one chap who had come a few years ago. What was his name? Rhymed with Ekans, he thought. Or at least sounded like it. Whatever. He had sent Mr. Ekans running back down the mountain with his tail between his legs. The most enjoyable part of the battle had been seeing pokemon which he hadn't seen before. And that was years ago. There must be tons more to see! But battling, that sounded much more promising. He had trained for many years, and now it was time to battle. He would go back down the mountain, and find some strong trainers to battle. After all, what was knowledge without the power to use it?

X—X—X

It was a typical afternoon in Pallet Town. The sun was out, few clouds in the sky. Children having mock pokemon battles on the street, women gossiping as they went about their daily shores. Not much else was happening. The only place bustling was the laboratory. The large grounds behind the building had all kinds of pokemon. A proportionate amount of caretakers was required. Not to mention that there was an endless queue of people wanting to study under Samuel Oak, so the lab was always crowded. It was a typical afternoon in Pallet in every way except one. And that one, as unusual as it was, defined that day for years to come.

Red was returning home. After eight long years, during which only Professor Oak knew of his whereabouts, he was coming back. Of course, people didn't know it yet, but they soon would. He was in the air on Charizard, just passing over Viridian City. From up in the air it looked much the same as it had. But time and tide wait for no one and Red knew that there would be changes. Maybe not something that the eye could catch immediately, or maybe even those. But changes there would be.

Pallet wasn't far from Viridian, a day's walk at most, so it took a few minutes to reach Pallet. As he was descending from the sky, everybody who was outdoors looked up and pointed. Yeah, his Charizard was pretty large. Charizard sizes were determined by the temperature of their tail flame, which was an indicator of their overall health. Living in a frigid atmosphere for years had inadvertently increased the core temperature of Charizard's body, in turn increasing its tail flame temperature and inducing a constant growth spurt.

As he touched down outside the lab, the good professor himself came rushing out. Apparently somebody had called him to see this super large Charizard. As Oak looked over the magnificent specimen, his eyes fell on its Trainer, perched on its back. And then his eyes almost popped out of his head.

"Red! And in the flesh! How have you been? And your Charizard! Beyond spectacular, I say! How did it get so large? And that flame! Did you feed it anything unique? Oh, what am I saying? It's so obvious! Come in, come in! People are gawking now. I trust you still have the same aversion to crowds? Don't worry, I won't tell a soul that you're here."

Red followed Oak inside the lab and into his private office. He left Charizard outside to do as it would. Once they were seated comfortably behind closed doors, Red let out a sigh. It had been a while since he had sat on anything as soft as the chair seat. Or in a room which maintained a constant conditioned temperature. He appreciated the comfort, only a corpse would not, but he had also grown out of requiring it. He had been forged in hardship. The little things brought some pleasures, but nothing Red couldn't live without.

"So… Red, how have you been? And show me your pokemon! I'm dying to see what 8 years on the highest peak of the world did to them! It's obvious the cold climate resulted in Charizard's increased size and tail flame temperature." His tone turned to one of awe. "I've never seen a Charizard with a blue flame before. Spectacular. What about the rest? Where's Pikachu? You always had it around before you left… oh!" said Oak as Red released the pokemon in question from its pokeball. It, too, was larger than when Oak had last seen it. It looked up at Oak, yipped and zipped around the room.

"Amazing… it's become so much faster than it used to be. Have all of them become so much more powerful? Fascinating. You were the strongest Trainer in Kanto before you left, and I think you definitely retain that title. Johto and Kanto share the league now, which means it's included too. There were a few strong Trainers to come out of Hoenn and Sinnoh, but that was years ago. The last I heard, Unova had produced some unusual activity, where a strong Trainer had fended off an organization which planned to take over the area. There's also the matter of this. It came for you yesterday. Blue received one too."

Red opened the letter Oak handed to him and scanned through it quickly. It seemed that he would be leaving again very soon.

X—X—X

Before he left the lab, Red strolled through the fields behind the building. Oak had instructed all his employees to leave the young man alone. As soon as Red had exited the building, he had pulled out all his pokeballs and let his companions loose. Many of the pokemon in the pasture had been caught by him, and he wanted to see them all together after years. There were Pidgeot and Fearow, mock battling in the skies above. He could see Victreebel and Vileplume, basking in the sun at the edge of the forest. Venusaur plodded over to join them. Through the water in the lake he could make out the silhouettes of Gyarados, Dewgong and Cloyster. Blastoise dive-bombed in to join them. Red chuckled at the antic. Blastoise was definitely the most jocular of his crew.

All around were pokemon he had caught on his journey across Kanto. He had put in time and effort to capture them and raise them. It hadn't been easy. Professor Oak had initially sent Blue and him out to complete the pokedex, a device created by Oak to dispense and collect data on captured pokemon. The mission was to catch all the pokemon, but somehow, somewhere along the journey, their focus shifted from catching pokemon to battling them and winning the league. Even then, they continued to fill up the pokedex whenever they got the chance, though their ultimate goal was now Indigo Plateau. After they both had made it there, with Red leaving as the victor, they picked up their old goal. They tucked into it with gusto; for Blue it was another chance to get one over his rival and for Red it was something to focus on after winning the league.

Red enjoyed being around his pokemon. They had missed him and he had missed them in turn. Arcanine and Rapidash frolicked around him, as did Butterfree and Venomoth. He could see almost all of them somewhere around the ranch. This was the company he enjoyed the most. He was awkward and quiet around other humans. With pokemon, he was always happy. They didn't have any agendas; they didn't care that he was the youngest Champion ever. They didn't want interviews, or photos with him. He could relax around them; he could pretend like he was one of them. Sometimes he even thought that he could understand what they were saying.

After a few relaxing hours, he saw that the sun was halfway down. It was getting late. There were other things he had to do as well. Places to go, people to see.

X—X—X

He stood outside the door of the house he had been born in. This was the moment he had been dreading the most. His mother had always supported him in everything, from filling up the pokedex to secluded training. He was nervous and excited, an icy hot feeling welling up in his gut. Before he lost his nerve, he knocked twice and took a step back. What was he nervous about? This was his mother!

The door opened, and there she stood, looking much like when he last saw her. There were a few lines on her face, around the eyes, that had not been there before. Her hair was cut shorter than it used to be. He wasn't used to seeing such surprise in her expression. One thing was the same and would never change – the love in her eyes. She threw her arms around him and he could feel the sobs wracking her body. As his arms reached around her, one hand crept up and wiped the tears threatening to spill out of his eyes.

X—X—X

"So let me get this straight. You've come back from Mount Silver after eight years, and you want to leave tomorrow for Unova?"

They were sitting in the living room he had grown up in. Nothing had changed. The furniture was the same, as well as the décor. It was like he had stepped back in time; it had been almost a decade and Red had expected to see some changes. He nodded his assent to her question.

"Don't even think about it. For the first time in who knows how long you've gotten a proper meal inside your belly. Your clothes barely fit you, you could stand to use some personal grooming, and I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN EIGHT YEARS! You can leave after a few days and that's that!"

She was right, as usual. He needed a haircut and a shave. Even though he didn't have enough growth for a full beard, the scraggly stubble was itchy, and his hair was longer than he'd like. He had also really enjoyed the food cooked by his mom. He had missed her more than he'd care to admit. He smiled at her and nodded his acquiescence. She visibly calmed down and offered to take him shopping for some new clothes.

This time he shook his head. He had enough money of his own and he didn't need her opinion on the clothes he bought. It would lead to somebody's feelings getting hurt and that was one thing he didn't want. They had a few days together before he left and he wanted those days to be as pleasant as possible. But it was true that he needed new clothes and there was never a better time than now. So he excused himself and made to leave. He opened the door and was shocked to see the person standing there, hand raised as if about to knock.

"...Green?"

X—X—X

Fast forward a few days later and Red was getting ready to leave. His new clothes were packed and ready, along with food and Trainer essentials. He had opted for his usual colors, blue jeans, black t-shirts with a red jacket. He was sitting on his bed, putting on his shoes. His mind drifted back to the last few days.

Green had been a childhood friend of his. When Blue and he had left, she had followed, but not to compete with them. She simply wanted to explore the world. She did, and when she was done she returned to Pallet Town and stayed there. The archetypal girl-next-door. Literally. She was Red's neighbor. Over the last few days, they had hung out a lot. There was a lot of catching up to do. Last night, they had gone out to the only bar in town. Now that they were of drinking age, it was only appropriate for them to share this experience together, just like they had tried out so many new things as children. Sadly, Blue wasn't there to complete the group. The alcohol went straight to their heads, and taking into account childhood crushes that hadn't gotten closure, the result was as expected. Red spent the night at her house. This was another new experience for the duo, and Red at least, was glad it had been with her.

He got up from the bed and walked downstairs. He kissed his mom on the cheek and gave her a goodbye hug. He had already bid Green and Oak goodbye. As he called out Charizard and prepared to leave the region, a small smile appeared on his face. A new chapter of his life was now beginning. He was ready for it.

A.N. – Wow! That's chapter 1! A big fat infodump. This chapter was originally planned to be much shorter, but then as I was writing the backstories etc. just seemed natural to put in. Tell me what you guys think! A lot happened here and I tried to add some humor and also put some secrets in! They will be revealed much later, if at all. Review review and review!


	3. Chapter 2

A.N. – Red reaches Unova in this one, and has to deal with a lot of new things. Watch how he reacts and adapts to a whole new place.

 **Chapter 2**

Aspertia City. Red's first thoughts were that it really shouldn't be called a city. It was a bit larger than Pallet Town but only about half as large as Kanto's smallest city, Viridian. He had found out some information about it from Professor Oak before he left. It was a new settlement, created after the incident with the sinister Team Plasma two years ago. Knowing that, it was impressive how large it had grown in only a couple of years. Pallet Town was many years older, and still had not reached that size. That must be because the only settlers were Oak's students and employees. People who grew up in Pallet tended to not settle there, Blue and he being cases in point. Regardless, Aspertia was where he was told to start in Unova.

Apparently the Trainer that had opposed Team Plasma earlier had started out with two friends, both of whom were said to be in Aspertia. The Trainer could be anywhere in Unova, so these two were the best source of information on… what was the Trainer's name? Something beginning with H. Ah well, he'd find out soon enough. He had just landed on the outskirts of Aspertia. He sent Charizard to its usual place when he was travelling – high in the sky to keep a lookout. It had very sharp senses, especially eyesight and hearing. It would be able to watch for potential trouble, and in case he was ambushed and his pokeballs taken away, it would still be able to help. Pikachu was on his shoulder, or scampering around him as usual.

He took a deep breath and took his first few steps towards a new adventure. As he drew closer to the outlying structures, he saw two boys outside a hut.

"…Let's go find that person named Bianca! Let's go!"

He only managed to hear the end of the conversation, but apparently they were going to search for someone named Bianca. These two looked like they were locals, and spoke about Bianca as if she were not from Aspertia. Maybe this Bianca was one of the friends of the Trainer he was looking for. He decided to follow these two boys to save time. As they walked around the place, Red, who was not very far behind, could hear them talking.

"Once you get a pokemon, you leave right away. I'm gonna need your help."

"Yes Hugh, don't worry."

"Well, hurry up already! Let's look for that Bianca person!"

So the one with the weird blue afro hair was Hugh. Red hadn't heard the other boy's name yet. He also had a weird afro hairstyle but his hair was brown. For some odd reason he was wearing leggings under his grey shorts. Maybe this was the latest fashion. After all, lots could have changed in eight years.

"There's the Trainer School. No one is allowed inside until a Gym Leader starts working there."

"So it's true then? We're really getting a Gym in Aspertia? It's not just a school?"

"Isn't it awesome? We should definitely be getting more visitors to the city now."

Red sensed that this was a conversation they had had before. A new Gym was always a hot topic of conversation. Gyms were more than just a building. Gym Leaders were not simply Trainers. Of course, they had to be strong, but they also needed to have leadership qualities, because a Gym Leader was the _de facto_ head of the city. It would fall on them to pass judgment in certain situations, to protect the people from threats, both external and internal. So a new Gym opening in Aspertia would mean the administration could potentially be turned on its head, not that there was much to administer, thought Red cynically. Though if the Gym Leader had any brains, he or she would leave most things be. There didn't seem to be any major problems, and as the adage goes – don't fix it if it isn't broken.

"Wait, I was just in there and there were no strangers in the place" said Hugh, referring to the large building with a red roof, obviously the pokemon center. Red stopped for a moment and looked up at it. Even though he hadn't ever seen one before, he knew instantly that it was a pokemon center. Even so, it was still quite different from the ones back home. In Kanto, the pokemon centers were smaller buildings; here they were larger in amount of area covered. Also, the ones in Unova had a store inside them, so that Trainers could stock up on items while their pokemon were being cared for. It was more space efficient, as well as time efficient, Red realized.

He looked away from the pokemon center only to see the two boys getting further away. He had to jog to catch up. Soon, they stopped at the base of a staircase that wound up a hill. As Red approached them, he heard Hugh say, "I'll bet Bianca is up there looking at the scenery! Go get your pokemon!"

Red saw the other boy roll his eyes and start the trek up the stairs. So the boys thought that Bianca was up this set of stairs, wherever it led to. He needed to get up there to talk to her. As he drew closer, Hugh heard his footsteps and turned to see who it was. His eyes lit up in confusion.

"Hey! Who are you? My friend is getting his pokemon right now. You can't disturb him!"

Red ignored him and started up the stairs. Hugh moved to block his path, but Pikachu growled and emitted sparks from its cheeks. The boy looked taken aback and withdrew his arm for a second, but after that moment his expression turned to a resolved one and he shouted, "Don't you have any control over your pokemon? I'll show you what a real Trainer is like! I challenge your… uh, what pokemon is that? Doesn't matter! Go Oshawott!"

Red looked on as a small blue and white pokemon emerged from the thrown pokeball. It held a small shell in one hand, and had a round nose, rather like a clown's. _This must be one of the starters in Unova_ , thought Red. _Water type, if I'm not mistaken_. Red knew that there would be different species of pokemon in Unova, but he hadn't been prepared for how much his curiosity would be piqued. There would be new moves, new abilities; he would have much to catch up on. Damn Green for not updating him! And damn him for not thinking about it earlier! He would have time later to study. For now, he had a challenge to accept. He nodded at Pikachu.

"Pikaaaaa" said the yellow rodent as it leapt off Red's shoulder and lightly whacked the Water type pokemon with its tail. The otter rolled away and didn't get up. Hugh looked completely shocked and ran to his pokemon. "Oshawott! You tried hard, rest now." He looked at Red and his expression was one of respect.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a veteran Trainer! Is that a Pikachu? They're really rare in Unova!"

Red nodded his acceptance of Hugh's apology. His mistake was easy to forgive. He thought he was helping his friend. There was no need to hold a grudge. They walked up the stairs together, Hugh trying to make conversation and Red stoically ignoring him. As they reached the top, the view took Red's breath away. Snow capped hills in the background, sparkling pristine lake spread out in front. It was a lovely view.

"Now that you have your pokemon, I'll give you a pokedex too! It's a high-tech that automatically records the pokemon you encounter. Professor Juniper wants you to carry this and visit many places and meet all the pokemon in the region!"

Red turned to see a girl wearing an orange jacket and a large green hat talking to the boy who had walked up the stairs earlier. He was now holding a pokeball, while the girl handed him a device. It looked pretty different from the one he received way back, but there was no mistaking its function. _Great, so he got his own pokemon and a pokedex. Time to find out about the Trainer who saved Unova!_ As Red approached the duo, Hugh barreled past him.

"Hey! Take really really good care of your pokemon! What are you holding?"

Before the lad could get a word in, Bianca stepped forward and answered, "It's a pokedex."

"Please give me one too! I want to get stronger! That guy there just beat me in a battle!"

Red rolled his eyes. As if that could be counted as a battle. He didn't even collect the prize money. This guy, Hugh, was pretty annoying.

"If I have a pokedex, I can learn more about pokemon. That'll make me tougher!"

"But who are you?"

"I'm Hugh! I'm going to travel Unova with my Oshawott in search of something very important!"

 _Like some brains?_ Red was really not impressed with this boy. Kids in Unova seemed to start their pokemon journeys pretty late. Both Hugh and the other boy seemed to be at least fifteen years old. He didn't think he had been so daft when he was that age. Though at that age he had already been on Mount Silver for some time.

"Okay! Going on a journey is great! Luckily I have another pokedex with me."

This girl Bianca's super chirpy attitude was starting to grate on Red. There was no reason to speak in a sing song tune all the bloody time! After she gave her second pokedex to Hugh, she turned to him.

"And who might…"

"Let's see how good a Trainer you are! I challenge you to your first battle!" Hugh interrupted Bianca as he faced off against the other boy.

Red watched as Hugh send out his Water type. The other boy sent out a small orange pig pokemon. _Looks like a Fire type._ _These must be the starters in Unova. I've seen the Fire and Water types. Wonder what the Grass one looks like. And what these look like fully evolved._

Red and Bianca turned away from the battle that was about to start and faced each other. Apparently he wasn't the only one uninterested in watching kiddie battles. He watched as she walked up to him with a smile.

"And who are you? Professor Juniper didn't tell me about any _older_ Trainers."

"From…Kanto…" Red forced out of his mouth. He really didn't like talking. "Looking for…famous Trainer…saved Unova…"

"Ooohhh! You mean Hilda! Of course I know Hilda. She was my best friend! Until we grew up and left on our journey." Her face fell. "Then the three of us didn't see each other all that much. We went our separate ways. Me, to show my parents that I was independent. They didn't think I could do it, you see. But Hilda fought for me, and ultimately I could stand up to them by myself. Then…"

"I won't forget the pain you just put my Oshawott through!" shouted Hugh from behind them.

Red rolled his eyes towards Bianca, making her giggle. He could still see the sadness in her eyes, but it had been covered by a veneer. Like a patch over a hole in the pants. She continued speaking.

"Frankly, I don't know where Hilda is right now. You could ask Cheren. He probably knows. He kept track of her whereabouts better than I did. Did you say you're from Kanto? That means you don't have a pokedex either!"

Red held his up to show that he did, indeed, have a pokedex. Who did this girl think she was? Someone from Kanto couldn't have a pokedex? Professor Oak invented the damn things!

"Oh, right. Of course you have one. But can it record Unova pokemon?" she asked slyly. Red shook his head in annoyance. Why hadn't he remembered to get this done back home?

"Oh, well! Looks like I get to see your pokedex and upgrade it for you!" There was that bloody singsong voice again. He had half a mind to let Pikachu loose on her. But he kept his calm and handed over his battered pokedex reluctantly. Bianca grabbed it out of his hand and greedily started it up. As she looked through his data, her evil grin was gradually replaced by dismay, which turned to shock and finally awe. When she looked back up at Red, her eyes had a new respect for him.

She spoke in a hushed voice, "You…you…what!"

"Secret…don't tell…anyone…"

"You've…you've…Please allow me to upgrade your pokedex! You should have had it done a long time ago!"

His only reply was a curt nod. Dammit! Now she _knew_. He hadn't wanted anybody to find out until he had gotten his bearings at the very least. But only a few hours into Unova and his secrets were out. One was his identity, which would have been revealed sooner or later. The other was too terrible to be revealed. Most people in Kanto didn't know of it either. Only a handful of extremely trusted people knew. Professor Oak, Blue, his mom. And now some random girl who he had just met, and judging from her annoying tone of talking, hoped never to meet again.

Well there was nothing to do about it now. She had already started uploading the software upgrade to his pokedex. While she was doing that, he decided to watch the end of the battle between the newbies. Just as he turned around, the pig pokemon tackled the Water type and ended it.

"I lost…This is different from battling wild pokemon. At least you're a Trainer I can count on. I'm heading off. See you later, Nate. Get good!" And he ran off down the stairs.

So the other kid's name was Nate. Red would remember that. He seemed a more competent Trainer than Hugh even though he had just gotten his pokemon.

Bianca handed Red back his pokedex. The upload was complete; the installation was in progress. She walked over to Nate and took him to the pokemon center to heal his pokemon. Red was just relieved that he didn't have to hear her voice anymore. He called Charizard down from the sky. They had once tried an experiment on Mount Silver to see how long Charizard could stay up in the air before coming down. After ten days Red called him down to see not a trace of exhaustion. And that was on the top of the highest peak in the world, where the air was thin. Over here, the Fire type could probably stay up indefinitely.

Red sat down with his back resting against Charizard. He opened the pokedex, which had completed the installation and was now rebooting. When the display came on, it was Red's turn to gape. There were innumerable new pokemon, uncountable new abilities and an infinite number of new moves. He had a long, long study session ahead of him. He looked up at Charizard and then at Pikachu.

"Flare Blitz…Charizard…learn it…"

He had lots to learn, and lots to teach his pokemon. His hunt was on hold for now, but at least he had a name to go with it.

Hilda.

A.N. – All done in one scene! Red is now in Unova and has tons to learn. He's met Nate, Hugh and Bianca. I used to get really annoyed with Bianca when I played the gen 5 games, so I passed that on to Red. I know we haven't seen Red's badass side yet, but he hasn't encountered any tough trainers to showcase it. Not to worry, it will show up many times in the story and over the next few chapters.

That said, guys please review! I love reading reviews and they make me want to write quicker and upload sooner! Also, Sun and Moon out now!


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It had been a rough couple of days. Red had camped just outside Aspertia, close to where he had landed for the first time in Unova. He had been appraising the newly upgraded pokedex nonstop and teaching the new moves to his pokemon. It wasn't difficult to teach them new moves, in fact that was the easy part. They were trained well, and were experienced in learning new strategies and moves. Red hadn't become Champion of Kanto by slacking around. No, the hard part was memorizing all the various new moves and devising counter strategies. The worst was the sheer number of items that Red had to go through. He had been at it for a few days and still he was not even a fourth of the way through.

It was frustrating work. Red had to work out the effect of each move, the power required to perform it, and then get his pokemon to replicate it. Considering the strength and experience of his pokemon, he had it rather easy compared to someone not of his level. Yet, it was monotonous work. Nobody else had been out of touch with society for eight years, and what others had done over that period of time, Red was trying to do in eight days. He huffed in annoyance. Maybe it was time to take a break from this.

That evening, Red went into town. As usual, he had Pikachu with him and Charizard in the air above. He walked around aimlessly for a while. He passed the pokemon center and the Trainer School. He walked until he reached the base of the stairs which he had climbed up the other day. He had been deep in thought the entire time. Was there a way to speed this up? He had too much to catch up on. He could continue on without studying, but then he would be at a disadvantage when battling some strong Trainers. However, there was no teacher like experience. Currently his knowledge of the new moves was mostly theoretical with some experimental aspects as he taught his pokemon the moves. Actually watching them being used in battle would be a whole different game.

His thoughts continued along the same line as he began his walk back to his camp. Along the way, he saw a line of people trying to enter a door. Curiosity struck, and Red made his way towards the crowd. As he drew nearer, he saw that it was a pub of some kind. The line of people waiting to get in were blocked by a large, muscular man. In front of him was a pokemon that looked similar to a Machoke, except that it was carrying a steel I-beam in one hand. And it had a clown nose, for some reason. It looked really strange, a large round nose on a bulky, muscular pokemon. Definitely a Fighting type, it was part of the bar's security team. The person at the front of the line had to send out their own pokemon to challenge the bouncer's pokemon, which was why there was such a long line to enter. Each challenge lasted a few minutes, which caused the line to get backed up. Red wondered how that pokemon would be able to take on so many battles back to back. But as he reached the bar, he saw that it wasn't a battle that was taking place. The bouncer's pokemon was holding a card of some sort. All the opposing pokemon had to do was get ahold of that card. Any means were possible – speed, strength, deception. Red decided that this was a good time to try out some of the new moves Pikachu had learned.

He got into the line at the back and watched people in front of him managed to get in, or were unsuccessful and had to leave. Those who didn't manage it on the first try could get back in the line to try again. Not many did so. The way the locals in the line were chattering and not really paying attention to the proceedings, Red surmised that this must be a daily occurrence. As his turn approached and he drew nearer to where the activity was taking place, he also noticed that the people who passed were expected to do so by the others around them. They must be the regulars, those who have passed the test once and hence were expected to pass every time. But there was also a smaller group who seemed to be expected to pass, but didn't. Those must be the lazy ones. It was only natural for the Fighting type (which, by now he had used his pokedex to get its name) to keep up its training. Everyday it would be getting faster and stronger than the day before. The Trainers who managed to get in also kept up their training, but those who were expected to but didn't get it, probably relaxed their training for whatever reason and hence couldn't keep up with Gurdurr.

He realized that he liked this place. Kanto had nothing like this the last time he checked (which, granted, was eight years ago). He was looking forward to his turn, even though the outcome was not for deliberation. Finally, there was nobody ahead of him. He looked at the bouncer, who looked bored. He looked at the Gurdurr, which growled in anticipation. Finally, he looked at Pikachu and nodded. The yellow mouse pokemon flashed and then reappeared. It handed Red the card and then settled back on his shoulder. All sound around ceased. The bouncer seemed to have shaken himself awake and approached Red.

"Hot damn! Never seen a pokemon move that fast! You must be new here. Wonderin' what all the fuss around that card is, eh? That's your ticket into the place, proof that you made it past the test. Bartender gonna ask you to show that, so keep it on you."

Red pocketed the card, which was nothing special to look at, and then walked past the bouncer and into the bar. The inside was typical of most bars around the area – booths on the sides, bar taking up half of a wall, restrooms to one side. The place was about half full with people of both sexes talking, laughing, drinking. As Red made his way towards the bar, his eyes fell on a girl about his age, maybe younger. She had long brown hair, and an easy smile. When she caught Red looking at her, she smiled at him.

X—X—X

Red woke up the next morning and opened his eyes to see a ceiling over his head. He sat up with a start and tried to remember what happened last night. The last thing he remembered was walking into the bar. Why was everything after that hazy? Had he been drugged? Did someone roofie him? When he was about to get out of bed, he realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes! Where were his pokeballs? And his clothes? Whose house was he in? Upon looking around, he noticed the answer to his first two questions lying on the ground just inside the door. He hurriedly put on his clothes and gathered up his pokeballs. While doing so, he realized that Pikachu was inside its pokeball. He let it out and closed his eyes in preparation of an electrocution, but it didn't happen. He tentatively peeped to see Pikachu stretching and then scampering up his leg and onto his shoulder. That was very strange. Pikachu hated being inside its pokeball and always shocked Red after being put inside.

Red put that thought out of his mind. There were more pressing thoughts currently. With Pikachu on his shoulder, he opened the door slowly and quietly and peeked outside. He was at the end of a corridor, with another door next to the one he was at. He tiptoed along the length of the passage, which opened out into a large room which served as a kitchen and a living room. A lady, with her back to the passage, was busy in the kitchen. Red could smell bacon and fried eggs. His mouth started to water, and he took an involuntary step inside. The lady must have heard him, because she turned to face him, and with a large smile on her face said, "Good morning, Red. I'm sure you must be hungry after last night's activities." She added a wiggle of her eyebrows, and Red just stared. Not just because of what had happened, but because the lady in front of him must have been in her thirties. He didn't go for older women, did he? Not to say that she wasn't good looking; in fact, she was quite stunning.

"Don't…remember…last night…" Red forced out.

"Well, after the amount that you drank, I'm not surprised. Come and eat something. You'll feel better."

Red was only too glad to oblige. He sat at the table while the lady brought him a plate of food, and one for herself. While eating, they chatted about mundane things. She chatted, Red mainly listened. She implied that he had said a lot about himself the previous night. Apparently alcohol made him quite verbose. He had told her his name, that he had come to Aspertia three days ago. Luckily she didn't seem to have matched his name with his fame.

"So my son recently left on his pokemon journey. It's been a few days. I wonder how he's doing."

Red spat out the orange juice he'd been drinking. _Son? She definitely doesn't look like a mom!_

"Yeah, my son Nate. He left Aspertia around the time you came in, I think. Must have just missed each other."

 _I slept with Nate's mom!_ Red mentally beat himself up. But there was nothing to do about that now. It was over and done with. It's not as if he even remembered it. Yes, the best thing to do was to forget it ever happened. That's exactly what Red was going to do. Even though Nate wasn't really a friend, it would be weird to look him in the face knowing what his mom looked like naked. Red was just going to walk out that door and pretend last night didn't happen.

"Umm…thanks…"

"Thanks for last night? I was just going to say the same to you. It's been a loooooooong time since… you know. And it was _amazing!_ Too bad you don't remember it." A sly look appeared on her face. "Maybe we should create some new memories…"

She stood up and grabbed Red's hand, pulling him with her back into the bedroom. Pikachu, like the intelligent pokemon it was, elected to stay in the kitchen and eat.

X—X—X

It was now three days past the day that Red had awoken in the bed of Nate's mum, Lily. That day, after breakfast and further bedroom adventures, Red had found out that Lily used to be a pokemon center receptionist. Which meant that she had worked closely with all kinds of pokemon. Especially when they were injured. After that, the tables had turned. Red was the one chasing her, to share the vast repository of pokemon knowledge stored in her head. It didn't take much of convincing though. She had been feeling the empty nest syndrome and was only too glad to have some company. So for the last three days, they had been cooped up in her house, with Lily teaching Red about pokemon moves and many new pokemon that he didn't know about. Almost all their time had been spent studying, with some breaks to eat and for the bedroom activities. With Red's innate battling instinct, he soon felt that he had learned most of what he needed to know; the rest he could learn on the road. He was starting to feel restless. It was almost a physical feeling, a discomfort in his very core. It wasn't in him to stay indoors for three days straight. After lunch that day he took his leave of Lily.

There was no elaborate ritual. Just two friends saying goodbye, even though they had been more than just friends for the last three days. Both of them knew that what was between them would not last longer than the time that Red was in town. There were no hard feelings on either side. It had been a win-win situation. Red received the knowledge that he sought after and Lily got some much desired attention and companionship. It had been a fruitful arrangement for both. With a less burdened heart, Red took off towards the center of the city. It was time to find that other friend of Hilda's. What did Bianca say his name was? Cheren.

As Red walked towards the pokemon center to begin his search for Cheren, he was distracted along the way by the Trainer School building. Earlier it had been empty, its windows dark and door locked. Now there were lights on in every room. Children could be heard yelling and roughhousing. Classrooms were in session, where the scratching of pencils and the droning of teachers could be heard. Red was reminded of his own days sitting in such classrooms. He had never really paid attention, his mind always wandering and imagining himself fighting Championship battles.

He walked through the doors. This place looked a lot like his old school, too. A small smile appeared on his face. Ah, to be a child again. Walking along the corridor attached to the entrance, Red saw another door ahead. This one had a funny symbol above it, like a pokeball, skidding against something. Strange. He walked through this door, expecting to see a playground for the kids. He wasn't disappointed. There was, indeed, a large playground, but it looked like a battle field. On the side opposite Red stood a young man, wearing a white shirt and blue trousers with a red tie. His long black hair was messy, but the oddest thing was that he was just waiting there. Standing still like a statue. Red had seen this before. Not in a long time, but it was familiar enough to trigger the memories. This had been the case with every Gym in Kanto. The Gym Leader would just stand there. It was quite unnerving, and Red suspected that it was exactly that effect that the Gym Leaders wanted. This answered the question as to what this place was. That symbol above the door must denote Gym. Red hadn't planned on taking on the Aspertia Gym. He had to look for Cheren and then continue his search for Hilda. But there was something about being at a Gym that roused an instinct inside him. An urge that had been buried for the last eight years. The compulsion to earn Gym badges and prove himself. He just could not leave without that badge. It probably wouldn't take long anyway. Well, the Gym Leader wasn't going to move. There was only one way to do this.

Red approached the youth, who finally stirred when the distance between them had reduced to an arm's length.

"You must be a challenger! Welcome to Aspertia's Gym. I'm Cheren, the Gym Leader. Well, I just became the Gym Leader yesterday. More importantly, we need to prepare for your challenge! You two, take your places! You, challenger! Defeat these two and then I'll battle you."

What luck! Cheren was the Gym Leader. He wouldn't have to go searching for the guy. But what was this about battling junior Trainers? Meh, he was Red! Youngest Champion ever! He wouldn't be saddled with defeating some lackeys to face the Gym Leader.

"Strong enough… Battle and see…"

"What was that? You think you're strong enough to battle me first, eh? I don't like your arrogance, stranger. Think again."

Red just maintained his look.

"Fine. If you want to break protocol, I won't go easy on you! I was told to use a weaker team for Gym challenges, but against you I will deploy my full strength! A three versus three battle, with my most powerful pokemon. I almost defeated Hilda, Champion of Unova, with these pokemon. Prepare yourself! Liepard!"

And so the battle was begun. Cheren's pokemon turned out to be a purple feline with a tail ending in a sort of sickle. Red had studied it recently. Liepard, Dark type. Fast, with good offense but low defense. He walked over to the other side of the battle ground and tossed a pokeball into the air. As it opened up, the red beam of energy that came out of it took the shape of a large blue tortoise standing on two legs. The pokemon had two cannons which extended out of the top of its shell on either side of its head. It towered over the Liepard, which didn't seem worried at all. Why would it? Blastoise looked slow, and speed and power were the trademarks of most victories.

"Liepard, Fake Out!"

The feline reared up and slammed its paws on the ground. A wave of air emanated from the location and sped towards Blastoise. The shellfish pokemon took the hit stoically. It grinned at the feline and let out a jet of water from its cannons. It moved too quickly for Cheren to respond, or even for Liepard to move out of the way. When it hit, everyone around the area cringed. They say that hitting the water after falling from a certain distance is like hitting concrete. This was much the same. After the water dissipated, Liepard was seen lying on the ground, completely battered, one leg bent an angle that suggested it was broken. Red's face was impassive, while Cheren's jaw was on the ground. He quickly collected himself and ran towards his fallen pokemon.

"Liepard! Come back, you tried your best." He quickly recalled his pokemon back to its pokeball, where it would linger in stasis until he could get proper care for it.

"So, challenger. Looks like you have a little strength after all. Let's see how you face against this one."

He grabbed another pokeball from his belt and threw it into the field. Midway, it opened up into a large insect-like beast, with mandibles and a thick carapace. It stood on its hind legs and had a thick tail. Again, Red recognized it from his recent studies. The Dragon type, Haxorus. Fearsome to behold and even more terrifying in battle, the behemoth towered over Blastoise. Again, the Water type grinned and aimed its cannons, but didn't launch anything.

"Ha! Water is not effective against Dragons, challenger. Perhaps you should have done some research earlier. I can recommend a good Trainer's school not very far from here," taunted Cheren. "Haxorus, Dual Chop!"

As the Dragon type rushed towards Blastoise, Red waited. He waited until the last moment before snapping his fingers. Blastoise, even with all its bulk, nimbly avoided Haxorus' outstretched arms and rolled away to another corner. There, once it had unfurled, it again aimed its cannons, but this time instead of water, a thin beam of ice lanced out and hit Haxorus. Before the latter could escape, the ice had covered all parts of its body and it was frozen solid.

"Grr! You're lucky the Ice Beam managed to freeze Haxorus. Otherwise you'd be the one sending out another pokemon. This one will rip you apart completely!"

His last pokemon answered a question Red had been mulling over ever since he had met Bianca at Aspertia lookout all those days ago. What did the starter Tepig look like when it was fully evolved? The answer was – like a frikkin' tank! It still looked like a pig, only now it stood on two legs, with piston like arms and a collar of fire. This was one of the few pokemon Red had not managed to study. Its stumpy legs ensured that it wouldn't have the advantage of speed over Blastoise, but then again, not many pokemon did. Red pulled out his pokedex to find out some information. Before he could see more than the pokemon's name, Cheren called out an order.

"Wild Charge!"

The mega fire pig pokemon started off at a slow jog, picking up speed over time. A bolt of electricity was seen running along its body, then another one. As its pace picked up, the amount of electricity crackling around its body did too. By the time it was about to reach Blastoise, little more than a ball of energy could be seen. Red once again waited. This time he didn't take any action against Emboar's attack. The resulting crash shook the very ground they stood on. After the smoke cleared, Blastoise was seen standing a few steps behind where it had stood before, and its skin was covered in soot. The other pokemon was on its knees in front of Blastoise.

"What! How strong is that Blastoise? That was Emboar's strongest Wild Charge!" He took the smart decision and recalled Emboar. "I give up. No pokemon could be that strong."

Red walked up to Blastoise, smiled at it and gave it a pat on the back. The shellfish pokemon grinned at its Trainer and collapsed into red energy as it was called back. Red turned to face Cheren, who did the same.

"So. You were able to defeat me. Take your badge and go." He held out the rectangular badge. Red made no move to take it.

"Looking for…Hilda…" he blurted.

"Keep looking." He dropped the badge and turned and walked away.

 _What a sore loser!_ Red bent down to pick up the badge. Well, if Cheren wouldn't give a straight reply, Red's only option was to travel the region and find her by himself. As he looked at the badge, he slowly smiled. _Find her, and beat her._

A.N. – Cheren isn't a really strong trainer, so I made this battle short-ish. The tougher battles will probably last longer. Probably. Red is quite strong. Also, I made Cheren a real asshole. He looks too stuck up to be a nice guy. Sorry this chapter took so long. Been busy with a lot of things. Read and review!


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Red pocketed the badge in his jacket and left the field. He strode back down the hallway. When he was a few feet away from the Trainer School door, it was pushed open. When Red saw who it was, he cringed. Nate, the guy whose mom he had done all sorts of naughty things with for the last few days. He really didn't know how to look him in the eye. Instead, he brushed past him and walked out the door. Whew! No conversation was the best! But he still didn't know how to find Hilda. He didn't even have a map of the region. He could just sit on Charizard and fly to the next town, but there was no fun in that. He was in a new region! It would make sense to see the sights, meet the locals. Who knew if he would return to Unova again? No, there was one other option. He resigned himself to it.

X—X—X

"Red! Didn't expect to see you again so soon! Couldn't get enough of me, huh?" said Lily, striking a sexy pose.

"Need help…finding Hilda…"

"Hilda? Why are you looking for her?" she turned to let Red into the house. "You know she was the Champion a couple of years ago. She even saved Unova from this evil group called Team Plasma. They wanted all Trainers to release their pokemon. They were being led by a young man named N, but the true mastermind was another of their leaders. His name was Ghetsis." She caught his hand and led him towards the bedroom. "I'll tell you all I know, but only after…" Her words were cut off by Red lifting her up and carrying her bridal style into the bedroom.

X—X—X

"Hilda was…is…a very strong Trainer. She defeated N and Ghetsis when even the then Champion couldn't. There was a big battle at the League where Team Plasma, led by N, defeated the Elite Four and the Champion. A huge castle built by Team Plasma rose out of the ground and destroyed the area. From what I heard, Hilda was right behind them and was surrounded by the seven sages, the leaders of Team Plasma. She was rescued by all the Gym Leaders of the region, who managed to contain the seven sages, of which Ghetsis was one, while Hilda sought out N to stop whatever it was they were doing." Lily stopped to take a sip of water. She breathed in, and then out, as if putting the words together in her head, and then continued speaking.

"There's an old legend. There was once a single, extremely powerful pokemon that was used by twin brothers. Both brothers sought different things; the elder wanted truth while the younger craved ideals. At first it was a minor thing, it didn't matter. But as time passed, they began to argue and then fight. The single pokemon, in response to their fighting, split into two pokemon – one that represented truth and the other, idealism. Brother fought against brother in a battle that lasted days. But in the end, they were evenly matched and so declared a truce, saying that both were equally right. However, the truce was broken by their sons, who destroyed the region with the fire and lightning powers of their pokemon. There was no end in sight, so the pokemon themselves decided to abscond and put an end to the fighting.

I don't know the details of how, but apparently N had captured Zekrom, the legendary pokemon representing the ideal. He was sure that Zekrom would help him in his quest for the ideal world. He was convinced that people were mistreating pokemon, and the ideal world was one where one was separated from the other. After defeating the Champion, he was going to take over Unova and force everybody to release their pokemon."

She stopped there to take another sip of water. Red took that second to contemplate what he had just heard. He couldn't even imagine life without his pokemon. They had been by his side for so long that he just thought they'd always be there. Perhaps to some that would say that he took them for granted, but he knew it wasn't so. He always put their well being before his own. If this Team Plasma almost forced all Trainers in Unova to release their pokemon, and if this girl Hilda had stopped them, the entire region owed her their everlasting gratitude. Lily started speaking again.

"Somehow Hilda managed to get ahold of Reshiram, Zekrom's counterpart, who stood for the truth. The truth was that pokemon were happy with their Trainers. Sure, there might have been a few who mistreated their pokemon, but the creatures were largely happy. It is a symbiotic relationship, as you well know. N and Zekrom refused to see it this way, and a battle ensued. From what I heard, it lasted almost all day. For some reason…really, I don't know why…after Reshiram beat Zekrom, N saw the light. It's as if losing the battle made him realize that he had been wrong all along."

Red had encountered this before as well. When he had defeated Giovanni all those years ago, the last time he had seen the man, Giovanni's outlook changed. From having a criminal mentality, he had transformed into having a peaceful one. He had immediately disbanded Team Rocket and set off to make amends for his wrongdoing. Red had a feeling that N had done the same.

"He immediately disbanded Team Plasma" said Lily, confirming Red's suspicions. "Though Ghetsis refused to allow it. Hilda then had to battle Ghetsis to stop him from carrying out his plan regardless. Once she defeated him as well, he disappeared. Nobody has seen him since. After that, Hilda defeated the Elite Four and the Champion. Some time later, she sat on her Reshiram and flew off. She didn't tell anyone where she was going. Since then, nobody has heard from her or knows where she is. Well, except her mother probably. She lives all the way across Unova in Nuvema Town. Maybe you should go see her."

Just as Lily finished, there was a knock on the door. Red and her both rose to see who it was. Once again, the last person Red wanted to see, especially regarding where he was. Nate. Red hurriedly said goodbye and practically ran out the door. On his way out he heard Nate asking his mom, "What was _he_ doing here? How do you know him?"

Luckily Red made it out of earshot before he could hear Lily's answer. He didn't know how she was going to explain it to her son. So… Nuvema Town. Lily had handed him a map of Unova some time ago, so he opened it up. He finally located Nuvema, a small town in a corner of the region, much like Pallet Town in Kanto. It really was all the way at the other end of Unova. Charizard could get him there in a jiffy, but again, no fun in that. He wanted to get a feel for the place, a chance to see some new pokemon. His whole life had been in Kanto, with the occasional excursion to Johto. At last he was in a place that was entirely new, where most people had no idea who he was, where they worshipped another Trainer called Hilda instead of him. It was his second chance at anonymity, having lost the first in Kanto when he became the youngest Champion ever. He had spent about a week in this region as a relative unknown, and he was enjoying it. Yes, he would travel to Nuvema by foot so that he could enjoy the journey. He would see what kind of Trainers this region birthed.

Making his way across the city again, back to where he had met Bianca, he climbed the stairs again to get a view of where he was going. The view was as spectacular as before. There was a lake in the foreground and behind that a mountain range. The entire scene was spotted with trees giving the panorama a serenity like no other. It also helped that it was located in a corner of Unova. Such vibes would not be possible near the center of the region, which was apparently one of the most bustling part of the world. He would see it soon enough.

Red took the stairs down two at a time, much to Pikachu's chagrin, who was jostled quite a bit on his hat-perch. He took a deep breath and started his new journey.

X—X—X

The next town wasn't very far off. The journey would take a couple of days though. Days that Red was looking forward to. He had grown used to living in the wild. Human emotions and feelings had been replaced with primal instincts. Not completely, obviously. He was still a human and could think and act rationally. Living in the harsh, untamed, frigid climate of Mount Silver though, it _changed_ something. It wasn't possible to live there for eight years and return unscathed. Tremendously powerful pokemon, similar to the ones found in Cerulean Cave, had roamed unchallenged until Red made his way up there. He and his pokemon had needed to fight for food, for shelter, just to survive. Soon his pokemon had surpassed the wild pokemon and within a year the wilds were nothing more than a nuisance.

But that initial period of hardship had taken its toll. Red's animalistic side had become quite prevalent. He had been nothing more than a feral animal, as had his pokemon. Over time, after the wild pokemon and weather ceased to be a problem, Red regained most of his natural, quieter self. However, the other side of him was lurking beneath, ready to take over when needed. It was a survival instinct and surfaced whenever Red needed it the most. It hadn't happened more than a couple of times, and only in the direst circumstances. Red really didn't have control over it. There hadn't been an incident for over four years now, but Red wasn't sure if that was because he was free of it, or because his pokemon had become so strong that there were no opportunities for it to unleash.

As Red walked, he enjoyed the lovely warm weather and the verdant countryside. Wild pokemon tended to stay away from him these days. It was probably due to the fact that they could feel how strong his pokemon were. Pokemon had strange instincts like that. It didn't matter. His pokemon were strong enough, and he hadn't come to Unova to catch new ones.

He passed a couple of young Trainers while walking. Some even tried to challenge him, but judging by their age, they would be around the same level as Nate and Hugh. They wouldn't pose any sort of challenge to him and would probably hurt their own self esteem when they lost to his Champion pokemon. It wasn't worth the time. Even though there was no time stipulation, he was eager to get on the battlefield with Hilda. She had a legendary on her team. His team didn't. He wondered how he would fare against the legendary dragon of truth. He had faith in his pokemon and there was no doubt in his mind, but he had always been cautious. That night, he started training his pokemon again.

X—X—X

The next few days passed without any incidents. On the horizon, Red could see a mountain and at the base of that he saw the myriad structures that denoted a settlement. As he drew nearer, he saw that it wasn't very large; maybe a little larger than Lavender Town back home. He picked up his walking pace.

Red was just outside the settlement, Floccesy Town, as it read on the large signboard posted at the entrance, when he heard a yell from somewhere to his left. To his left was also the mountain he had seen earlier, and he looked up to see what the shout was about. About thirty feet up, on a ledge, there was a man. He had long, red hair tied in a large ponytail. He wore plain white pants with what looked like a poncho covering his upper body. Set in a necklace were six pokeballs.

The stranger leaped off the ledge and slammed into the ground a few feet away from Red. Instinctively Red took a step back. When the dust cleared, he saw the man kneeling on one leg with the opposite hand supporting him. The man looked up at him and with a glint in his eye, stood up.

He and Red stood facing each other for a few seconds. Red was surprised at the strength exuding from him. He hadn't expected to find anyone of that strength in this area. But then, looks were deceiving, as he should have known. Finally, it was Red who turned away. He walked about twenty feet away and turned. In his hand, there was a pokeball, just like in the strangers. They could sense each other's power and neither of them wanted to back down.

With a yell, the man threw his pokeball, just as silently as Red tossed his.

A.N. – I know it's been a while and this is a short chapter, but I just got back into writing after the new year. I had already finished half this chapter so decided to complete it and then work on the next, longer one. Battle between Alder and Red!


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The weirdly dressed man tore out a pokeball from the garland type belt around his neck and with a yell, threw it into the space between Red and him. Red tossed his own pokeball into the same space. Both opened together, revealing two hulking beasts.

Both were approximately the same height. On Red's side there was his trusty Venusaur, the defensive behemoth, and on the stranger's there was the evolution of a pokemon he had seen recently, Gurdurr. This one was larger than its pre-evolved form, as was the case with most pokemon. The most obvious change was the loss of its steel bar, with the addition of two concrete pillars. The rest of the pokemon seemed unchanged. Conkeldurr, this one was called and it was a pure Fighting type.

"Conkeldurr, Earthquake!"

Venusaur stood in place as the opponent slammed the ground with both concrete pillars, but from the foliage on its back, eight vines crept outwards. The ground shook violently and a jagged crack made its way from Conkeldurr towards Venusaur. Just as it was about to make contact, Venusaur used all its vines to launch itself into the air towards Conkeldurr. The Earthquake passed underneath harmlessly.

Red didn't even need to tell Venusaur, or any of his pokemon what to do in most cases. They had trained extensively in various scenarios and knew what was expected of them in each. Venusaur had faced many an earthquake attack and after experimentation with different methods, knew that the best counter was to jump over them. Even though it was strong enough to take the attack head on, one of Red's most basic policies was to avoid taking damage wherever possible. One never knew when one would have to face a strong opponent. And this mysterious red-haired man seemed pretty strong.

Upon landing, Venusaur whipped its vines forward to attack. The Conkeldurr was so taken aback by the sequence of events that it froze for a few seconds. However, it managed to get back into the match before the vines could make contact, but just about, dropping its concrete pilings to evade the snatching vines.

Venusaur slowly but surely stepped towards the evading Fighting type, who was doing its best to keep out of the grasp of the multitude of vines. The end was inevitable. All Venusaur needed was a single misstep, and Conkledurr was down for the count.

"Well tried, Conkeldurr. You've earned a rest." The man in the poncho looked at Red and said, "Let's see how your Venusaur fares against this." He threw another pokeball with another yell. It opened up to reveal a large bird that took to the skies immediately. "Braviary is more than a match for this. Brave bird!"

Red had studied Braviary in 'class' with Lily. It had a pretty high attack, but defenses and speed were not as great. Brave Bird was an attack that Red had also managed to read up on. Very high power and huge recoil damage. The user charged up power and attacked the opponent head on. Just as he suspected, Braviary was pulling in energy which was coalescing around it at an impressive rate in the form of red tendrils. It wouldn't be long before it attacked with the speed of a bullet. There weren't many pokemon that would be able to escape such an attack. Red's evasion policy wouldn't work here. An Earthquake didn't move quite as fast as a pokemon using Brave Bird. Venusaur was much too slow to able to avoid getting hit this time. But it did have a few tricks up its metaphorical sleeve to deal with this.

Braviary didn't take much more time before charging towards Venusaur, who stood still as before, with vines hanging out. Red's mind flew back to a time about four years ago, while he was still on the peak of Mount Silver.

 ** _He was training his pokemon as usual. This time it was Venusaur who was being trained to battle against fast opponents. The logical choice for that was Pikachu. So the two stood opposite each other on a decently level ground that Red had managed to find._**

 ** _"Venusaur…don't get hit…" said Red, as he flagged off Pikachu. The mouse pokemon zipped away in a blur of Quick Attacks as Venusaur was left watching. It was very difficult to see Pikachu, even on a sunny day like this. In a blizzard or rain it was impossible. Venusaur had a wary eye out but it couldn't turn quickly, which hampered its efforts a lot. All of a sudden a blur appeared out of nowhere and rammed into Venusaur's side. The Grass type cried out and turned towards where Pikachu had come from, but again, the mouse was nowhere to be seen. This happened a few times, and Red could see the anger building up in Venusaur. It was evident in the way the dinosaur stood, in the fluttering of its plants and most of all – in its eyes. The next time Pikachu came, Venusaur was even faster. Not its body, that was too bulky to ever outrace Pikachu, but a vine appeared quicker than the eye could blink and whacked the Electric type away before it could hit Venusaur. This was Venusaur's secret strength – it could move its vines as fast as Pikachu._**

As Braviary moved towards Venusaur, one vine whammed into it before it could reach the Grass type. The bird pokemon spiraled away and crashed into the ground. It was clearly unable to continue and the strange man pulled it back into its pokeball.

"I've never seen a Grass type move so quickly! Let's see if it can outrace Accelgor!"

The next pokemon to appear looked like a car racer. It had a helmet on its head (or maybe that was its head, Red wasn't sure), and a cloth-like covering over the rest of its body. Some extensions at the back made it look like it was moving at a very high speed. Red has learned about this pokemon with Lily and knew that it was, in fact, capable of moving really fast. It was also a Bug type, which was neutral against Venusaur's dual Grass and Poison types. Red was confidant that Venusaur could handle Accelgor, based on the strength of the red haired man's previous pokemon. Red could sense that the man had strong pokemon. It wasn't really a supernatural ability or anything, but just a developed ability to take in various aspects of other trainers, like the way they stood, and how they spoke. It had come naturally to him after battling with trainers of varying strengths, and it worked remarkably well. So it was surprising that there was such a vast gap between the two trainers. Red had expected to switch out at least a couple of his pokemon. But clearly he was far stronger. He doubted that he would even need to switch Venusaur.

"Accelgor, Acid Spray!"

Red recalled that he had read about this move, but the details escaped him. Too much cramming in too little time would do that. He would just wait and see and roll with it.

Accelgor opened its mouth and released a glob of acid towards Venusaur. The defending pokemon was half Poison, so Red wasn't too worried about the attack, which looked weak by itself. But a strong trainer like the red haired man wouldn't use a weak attack for no reason, so there must be some other effect to the attack.

Venusaur lumbered sideways to dodge the attack, but a little of the acid caught its front left leg. The attack didn't do much damage, but left Venusaur's skin with an unhealthy looking pallor.

"Again!"

The speedy pokemon again launched an Acid Spray attack and Venusaur, who was unable to dodge it even partially this time. Its entire body looked raw now, and Red understood what had happened. Venusaur's special defense had been reduced. The opponent realized that Venusaur was too strong, and the only way he would be able to win was to weaken its defenses.

"Again!"

Red was not worried about the situation. Venusaur was too slow to be able to dodge the attacks, but it had phenomenal special defense. It would take a lot of Acid Spray attacks to reduce its stat meaningfully. But that did not mean he was going to just stand there and take attack upon attack. This Accelgor was a Bug type, which meant Grass attacks wouldn't be effective.

"Venusaur… Sludge Bomb…"

"Ahh! So you _can_ talk. You must have a really strong connection to your pokemon if they can battle without you directing them. But can you overcome the bond between me and mine? Accelgor, dodge that attack! And then use Acid Spray again!"

Venusaur's attack missed the Accelgor by inches. It was too fast, and the time that the blob of sludge took to travel from Venusaur to where Accelgor stood was enough for it to get out of the way. However, Venusaur could move its vines quicker. That was Red's best bet. After Venusaur got hit by another Acid Spray, Red said, "…Vine Whip…"

And that was the end of that battle. Accelgor lay motionless on the ground while Venusaur retracted its vines. It went the same way with the next two pokemon – Bouffalant, a pokemon that looked a lot like Tauros, but was stronger and slower. Venusaur was at par with regards to speed and took it out with minimal fuss. The next pokemon was Escavalier, which looked like a snail knight. It was slow, but had high defenses and attack. Again, it was no match for the powerhouse that was Venusaur. Finally, the opponent had just one pokemon left.

"Am I being overpowered?! This is nothing! I will overpower you!"

And he sent out his last pokemon. It looked similar to Venomoth, in that it looked like a big insect. It had orange wings and blue and black body, as opposed to Venomoth's purple. Red had studied this one extensively due its unique type combination and power level. It was a Bug and Fire type, the only pokemon of those types in existence. It was also quite powerful, and Red wasn't surprised that this mysterious man had one, considering that he was very strong.

He was more concerned about his own pokemon. Venusaur had faced five pokemon without a break and was still suffering from the effects of the Acid Spray attacks. It was also weak to both Fire and Bug types, so Red was not sure of how this battle would go. He had faith in his pokemon, who had been through tougher opponents, but Volcarona was no pushover. Its combination of Quiver Dance and Fiery Dance raised its stats tremendously and, coupled with Venusaur's lowered special defense, could even bring Venusaur down.

As expected, Volcarona began with Quiver Dance, which raised its speed as well as both its special stats. It then followed up with a Fiery Dance, which raised its special attack even higher. Venusaur was able to take the brunt of the Fire type attack, but it was greatly weakened. The only option Red saw was to use its super fast vines to cinch the match quickly. Venusaur wouldn't be able to take a few more of those attacks. It was also too slow to dodge them, so a quick victory was the best option.

"Use… Vine Whip…"

Venusaur sent out two vines at first, but another Quiver Dance increased Volcarona's speed such that it was able to dodge them with ease. Venusaur sent out two more, then another two. But Volcarona proved to be too agile in the air. Even though it still wasn't as fast as Pikachu, Venusaur was having a hard time hitting it. Firstly, it was in the air and could fly out of reach whenever it wanted. Second, it was very quick, making hairpin turns and sharp drops with ease. It was too unpredictable in the air. Red had to find a way to either get it in close quarters or at least out of the air. There were a few tricks up his sleeve still.

"Quiver Dance again! Follow it up with Fiery Dance!"

"…Petal Blizzard…"

While Volcarona was raising its stats, Venusaur expunged a torrent of petals that swirled around it. Even as the sun pokemon started its Fiery Dance, Venusaur released yet more petals that completely covered its body. It was like a shell created from petals, so when the attack finally hit, rather than Venusaur being injured, the petals blocked most of the damage. While they were still burning, Venusaur attacked Volcarona. The Bug pokemon tried to evade the attack but was not completely successful. Bits of burning petals struck its wings, its body, its legs. It was a Fire type, so almost no damage was done with also no chance of a burn, which wouldn't help Red anyway. But Red had sneakily told Venusaur to follow up with a Stun Spore attack, which _would_ be very helpful. Volcarona had been too busy trying to evade the burning petals to notice the Stun Spore powder, and so had Volcarona's trainer. When they did notice it at the last moment, it was too late. Volcarona was paralyzed! It slowly floated down towards the ground. That move had cinched the battle for Red, but not before Volcarona released one last Fiery Dance. Venusaur countered with a Vine Whip, slamming its opponent down into the ground.

However, that last move also sapped the last of Venusaur's strength. It had been exposed to too many Acid Sprays and too many boosted Fiery Dances. After its Slam attack, Venusaur collapsed as well. Red ran towards his pokemon and gave it a big hug, before recalling it.

"After the battle, a fresh wind blew through my heart…You certainly are an unmatched talent! Come with me!"

Red decided to follow this man. He was certainly strong relative to other trainers, and perhaps he would have some idea of where Hilda was. The red haired man led him towards Floccesy Town, then through the town. The road turned towards the north and the duo followed it. Close to the northern edge, the stranger turned into the front yard of a house and then led Red inside. Once there, he placed his pokeballs in a recovery machine and then turned to Red. "You there, trainer! My name is Alder!"

For some reason, he shouted every word even though Red was just a few feet away from him. It seemed to Red that either he thought Red had a hearing problem, or he, himself, had a hearing problem, or that he was just an extra loud guy. It was annoying, but also a little funny to see this grown man shouting like a ten-year-old.

"I'm a trainer with a keen interest in the world! One of my goals is the tell people how wonderful it is to walk toward the future together with pokemon! And you are?"

"…Red…"

"Hmph! So you're Red! Your Venusaur is a fine pokemon! Very fine indeed! I haven't been beaten so soundly since…I can't even remember! Where are you from, trainer Red?"

"…Kanto…Pallet Town…"

"Kanto? You mean to say…you are _Red_? The youngest Champion ever? _That_ Red? No wonder I was beaten so easily! I must say, Champion to Champion, it's a pleasure to meet you! Oh, you didn't know? I used to be the Champion of this here region, Unova! Right up until two years ago!"

He finally stopped shouting, much to the relief of Red's ears. So this was Alder, the Champion who was deposed by Hilda, and during whose reign Team Plasma rose and almost over.

He had some questions for this guy.

A.N. – wow it has been a while since I updated. Extreme apologies to all readers. I'm going to try to update regularly. I had a bad case of writer's block, but I just pushed through. It's Red's first major battle, tell me what you guys think. I really would like some suggestions.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Red strolled into the gatehouse at the end of Route 20. In his wake there were a bunch of dejected, defeated trainers. He had tried to avoid battling them, but each and every one of them had insisted on battling. Of course, his pokemon had steamrolled them without even trying. It really was not fair. Those trainers now probably felt like they were absolutely no good, having been beaten so soundly. Red hoped that it wouldn't permanently discourage them. Most of them were quite young, and the young are ever resilient. He was quite hopeful that they would bounce back.

What he was more interested in was if Team Plasma would bounce back. Like Team Rocket had. After he had defeated Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket had disbanded the criminal organization. He had just packed up and left and many of his employees had felt abandoned. So much so, that three years later some of the top level executives had tried to revive Team Rocket as an attempt to get Giovanni back. They thought that he, Red, had disappeared and there would be nobody to stand in their way, which would retrieve Giovanni from hiding once he found out that the Rockets were back. They were doubly wrong.

First, there **was** somebody to stand in the way. Some hotshot new trainer had sent them packing. The same guy had come searching for him after he had become Champion of Johto. He had been no match for Red, who still couldn't remember his name. Second, Giovanni **had** indeed changed. Full of remorse for his criminal ways, he had completely given up evildoing. They had trained together for some time on the Seafoam islands before the Cinnabar volcano had erupted, causing them to give up their training space to the refugees. During that time, Giovanni had confessed to Red that the latter reminded him of himself when he was younger, full of fire and ideals. He didn't know how he had turned into the man he had become, but he wanted to reverse the change, which Red informed him was never to late to do. So Giovanni wouldn't have gone back to Team Rocket anyway. If only the same change had come upon N and Ghetsis after being defeated by Hilda.

He had sat with Alder all evening that day, listening to his version of events from two years past. He had been there when N and Hilda had battled, when Ghetsis declared his hand behind the scenes. Most of story was as Lily had said. Once Hilda had defeated N, the latter had indeed changed his mind and decided that maybe all captured pokemon weren't unhappy after all. He had seen the 'truth' of the matter, to be rather tongue-in-cheek. However, Ghetsis had not. He had been captured by Cheren and Alder and taken away. That was all Alder knew. Except that Hilda had come back later and taken the title properly and then soon after she had disappeared. Red hadn't stayed much longer after that. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy Alder's company. The large man had a charm that was unique. But Red had been on a quest after so long and he had forgotten the feeling. It was always at the back of his mind, nudging him to get a move on.

He exited the gatehouse and stopped short. After the calm and peaceful Floccesy and the relatively small Aspertia, he was not prepared for the hustle and smog of Virbank. The entire city seemed to consist of warehouses and canals. Filthy, muggy canals. He could actually see Grimer and Trubbish floating around amidst clumps of garbage. Luckily he could see the pokemon center from where he stood. He made his way there quickly, not wanting to spend any extra time in the polluted city. Once he had gotten into his room, he lay on his bed reflecting on recent events.

X—X—X

After Alder's, Red had made a beeline for Route 20. It wasn't far from Alder's house. The route itself didn't seem special. It could have been one of any of the various roads anywhere in the world. As usual, there were trees and forested regions, a river passing through, and of course, trainers. Red _really_ hoped that they wouldn't challenge him. After battling Alder, who was the past Champion of Unova, Red had a fair idea of how strong his pokemon were. He knew that ordinary trainers wouldn't stand a chance against him. For their own sake, he tried to avoid battling them. Sadly, he wasn't as successful as he'd liked.

Over the days on Route 20, he avoided some battles by travelling inside the forest line. Trainers mainly stayed on the paved area which was easy to travel on. Only rangers typically went inside the tree line to explore and chart new areas. So Red walked on the road most of the times, but whenever he saw a person in the distance, he would quickly move laterally into the trees until he was hidden from view and emerge when the person had passed by. This tactic was largely successful, but sometimes he got caught and had to battle. Those times, he just used Pikachu and quickly finished the battle.

After a few days of this, one morning as Red was packing his camp, Charizard flew down and pointed into the trees. Then it made a pyramid with its arms followed by a circle with its claw. It looked as if it was indicating something…

"A cave…hmm…let's go…"

Charizard got onto all fours so that Red could get onto its back and then took off. The view from the sky was quite spectacular. There were waterfalls and hillocks, forests and lakes. Red could see people training their pokemon on the road as well as wild pokemon just living their lives towards the more secluded areas. He wondered if he should just travel this way, but he wouldn't be able to meet anybody up in the sky. And that would take away all the fun of travelling a new region. Charizard drifted towards what looked like an island in the middle of a lake. The island bulged upwards as one went further inland, like the entire thing was a large hill. On one side there was an entrance, which must have been the cave Charizard had referred to. They landed just to the side of the cave and Red disembarked. As he walked up to the mouth of the cave, he saw the silhouette of somebody already inside.

Cautiously, he stepped inside. The inside of the cave was much cooler than the outside. Or maybe it was just that he wasn't as close to Charizard's tail flame anymore. He took a few more steps inside the cave. He still couldn't see who the person inside was. It also seemed like they had their back to him. As he walked closer, the person turned at the sound of his footsteps. His eyes had also adjusted to the darkness by then and WOW!

It was a beautiful lady, maybe just a few years older than him. She had her hair coiffed up in a bun and wore a white top with a green skirt. A lab coat completed her outfit, marking her as a scientist.

"Hi there! I'm Professor Aurea Juniper! Looks like you have a pokedex. But that's a really old model. Hmm…Bianca told me she met someone with…You must be Red!" Her eyes widened. Her tone oozed with awe. "It's a real pleasure to meet you, Mr. Red, sir. I've been a big fan of yours ever since I was a teenager! That battle against Lorelei, it just took my breath away! The way your Charizard blew apart her team…"

Red had never liked people who gushed at him. But he found himself wanting to impress this woman. "Easy…"

"So you're in Unova now! After you just disappeared years ago! And in the Cave of Being! Trust the youngest Champion in history to notice a place like this."

She looked around.

"I'm glad you're here actually. This place…it's hard to put into words, but it feels strange…full of something…"

Red took a good look around, too. Juniper had been standing in what seemed like a central cavern. There were three tunnels branching out excluding the way in. The floor was covered in water, with a few dry patches emerging like Diglett. The islands, for lack of a better word, were arrayed in a sort of triangle, with each island being placed directly in front of one of the tunnels.

He, too, could feel…something. He had felt something like this before, very long ago. It was the same, yet different. Like two different types of cheese. You knew they both were cheese but the flavor of cheddar was very different from that of mozzarella. But this…essence, was the indication of something powerful, something primal.

"Careful…danger…"

He stepped closer towards the dry patches. The feeling grew stronger. It seemed to emanate out of all three tunnels at once, which should have been impossible if what Red suspected was correct.

As he stepped closer to one of the tunnels, a particular feeling intensified. The sense that he was an unstoppable force, that he could do anything he set his mind to. It was simply addicting. He slowly wound around the cavern, from one tunnel entrance to another.

The feeling changed.

Red was completely caught by surprise. Suddenly his lust for the professor heightened. She was too gorgeous to resist. And in this forgotten cave, who was there to see? They were alone. He just _had_ to act on it. He turned sharply and saw her looking around, with her back to him. He stalked over to her and just as he was about to reach her, he regained control. What the hell was he thinking? He wasn't a rapist! There was something really wrong here. This wasn't like the last time at all. He looked around again and noticed that he was standing right in the middle of the three islands.

The feeling from all three tunnels intensified. He looked around wildly, warning Pikachu to be ready. Alongside a gust of wind, three pokemon- no, beings- emerged from the tunnels all at once. They weren't very large, a couple of feet tall, but they floated in the air as most Psychic types tended to. The auras around each were palpable. They all shared similarly shaped and colored bodies, but their heads were very different. They were most definitely related.

Red found that he couldn't move. The feeling from before was at an intensity beyond even what he had felt the last time. His mind was being overrun by all sorts of things - pokemon types and attacks, lust, joy, fear, hunger- and through it all, a certainty that he could do _anything_.

Just as suddenly as they emerged, the three whooshed out of the cave entrance. Red sank to his knees in relief. He looked over at Aurea and she, too, was kneeling and sobbing in relief. He slowly crawled over to her and she clutched him tightly. He put his arms around her in mute consolation. They both needed some time to get over that experience.

There was no doubt about it. The three were legendary pokemon. Only those had this kind of power. But what _were_ they? What did they want and why were they here? More importantly, _where did they go?_ They could bring chaos to any settlement, even from a distance. Those were questions better left till later. Right now he had a weeping woman on his hands.

In a few minutes, Juniper was feeling better and could talk. "Brr…I can't believe the effect they had on me. So many things running through my head…I felt like I was back in school." She shuddered and continued. "That was Uxie, Mespirit and Azelf. They are said to represent knowledge, emotion and willpower. Though after that interaction I'm quite sure that is exactly what they represent." Another shudder ran through her.

"They are originally from the Sinnoh region. I have no idea what they are doing in Unova. We're halfway around the world." She bit her lip before continuing. "Umm, do you think you could track them or something? Just to, you know, make sure that they aren't harming people."

Red thought about it for a second. These were Psychic type legendary pokemon. They could probably teleport and get away from him very easily. He found himself shaking his head.

"Too difficult…Psychic types…"

"Yes, you're right. Tracking them will be near impossible. But please keep an eye out for them. We don't know why they are here. I must warn my father. Hope to see you again, Red!"

Saying so, she almost ran out. Red stared after her and then turned back towards the inside of the cavern. It was time to do some exploring.

A few minutes later Red exited the cavern. There was absolutely nothing in the chambers beyond the tunnels. They each led to a dead end with nothing to even suggest that there had been legendary pokemon hiding in there. He made his way back to where he had been before Charizard picked him up.

He spent the rest of the day in thoughtful silence, though that wasn't very different from how he normally spent his day. That night after dinner he opened his upgraded pokedex and looked up the three legendary pokemon from Sinnoh. Unsurprisingly, there wasn't much information.

Over the next few days he kept an eye out for any sign of the legendries. Any shift in his emotions, even the slightest, would cause him to jump and wildly look around. Finally, he reached the gatehouse to Virbank, relieved that he hadn't run into them, but apprehensive about the destruction they could be causing elsewhere.

A.N. – Hello readers! It's been a while I know, but I've just been very busy adulting. Hope you guys like this chapter, and as always, leave a review if you want them out quicker!


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The next day Red woke up bright and early. Pikachu was already up and scampering around the room waiting for Red to awaken. He scratched the rodent behind its ears and got out of bed. Very soon he was dressed and ready to head out. Once he was out of the pokemon centre, he looked around to determine which way to go. There was a road nearby that seemed to lead north out of the city, which was clearly not the way he wanted to go. He walked towards the east instead. Pretty much the only buildings around were factories and warehouses. Virbank was a large port, which explained the presence of the all the industries. It was sad though, that industrialization equaled pollution. Though as Red walked around, the city wasn't as polluted as he thought. The paint on the walls was still shiny where it wasn't coated in grime. The tiles on the footpath were even and unbroken. Either the administration maintained the city very well, or it just a new city and the dirt simply had accumulated over a short period of time.

In a few minutes, he had reached the end of the city. The road was flanked with buildings on both sides, and then suddenly stopped as it looked out onto a large body of water. Clearly this was not the way he needed to go either. Red turned right and walked along the boardwalk towards the south, since north led away from the city. Soon, he reached his destination. The Gym.

For some reason, all the Gyms in Unova seemed to be located in buildings that also served another purpose. The Aspertia Gym was in a school. The one in Virbank seemed like a rock club. It was dark and dingy inside, with a stage on the far wall and a bunch of tables and stools scattered around the middle of the floor. There was a bar stuck to one side of the room with nobody behind it. It was much too early for anybody to be drinking. What stuck out most about the room was the colour. The décor was neon – purple and green. And it was everywhere. The walls had neon posters and paint, the tables were the same colours, even the speakers and woofers were those colours. It was jarring to an eye that was unused to such bright colours. Something else about the combination caught Red's notice. These were the two colours associated with Poison types. Literally every Poison type was either part purple or green. Red made a pretty educated guess that the Gym Leader used Poison types.

After his eyes got a bit used to the shocking colours, Red noticed some people on the stage. They were setting up instruments, with a guy on the drums and two girls on guitar. The guy looked like one of the 'cue ball' trainers back home in Kanto, with a leather jacket and a skinhead vibe. The girl to the side was tuning her guitar. She, too, had a punk look.

The girl in the centre was the real deal though. She looked to be in her late teens, a few years younger than Red. Her hair was dyed a shocking white and her guitar was coloured black and purple. She had a grunge look going, with an oversized sweater and platform boots. Her guitar was almost as big as her and only had four strings. She was attaching the cords that connected it to the amplifier system. When she was done, she looked up and saw Red.

"Hey, the club isn't open yet. Come back after 7. We're rehearsing right now."

Her voice was strong, not too high pitched but perfect for rock music. Red could hear the modulations clearly; the mark of a great singer. He held up a pokeball in response to her statement.

"Oh a challenger, huh? Looks like I'm going to start the day by cleaning the floor with you."

Before Red knew it, the tables and chairs on the floor had been swept aside. A battlefield was created in the middle of the club. The Gym stood at the edge of the stage while Red moved to the opposite side.

"I am Roxie, challenger! Before you battle me, you must defeat my bandmates, Billy Jo and Nicky. Firstly…" Roxie stopped short when she saw Red shaking his head. "What do you mean no? You gotta prove to me that you know how to battle. It's the law in Unova. Every challenger has to win at least two battle before they can earn the badge. So if you want the badge, battle them. Together."

While Roxie had been speaking, the two other band members had descended from the stage and were standing just under Roxie. Both cocked their arms and released their pokeballs together. Out came a Grimer and a pokemon that looked like a Caterpie on steroids. Except it was red instead of green. Venipede, somewhat of a mix between Caterpie and Weedle in that it looked like the first but was a poison type like the second.

Red inwardly sighed and nudged Pikachu who was sitting on his shoulder. Before the opposing Trainers could blink, Pikachu had shot out onto the battlefield.

"You're allowed two pokemon, dude. It's called a double battle for a reason" said the male.

Red sighed and snapped his fingers. All anybody saw was a flash and a blur.

Pikachu was still in the same place but the Grimer had collapsed into a pool of sludge and the Venipede was lying on its back, legs curled.

"Whoa…dude…That's like some super powered shit right there," said the male with wide eyes. The female just harrumphed and recalled her pokemon, followed shortly by the male.

Both stalked off and joined the Gym Leader on the stage, where they busied themselves with their instruments once again.

"Well well well. Perhaps you won't go down as easily as I thought." She jumped down off the stage, holding her guitar steady with one hand as the other reached behind her to grab a pokeball. "Get ready! I'm gonna knock some sense outta ya!"

She threw her pokeball out to reveal a large brown pokemon. It had thin, tendril-like arms and some sort of green slime on the top half of its body. Garbodor, the trash heap pokemon. It was a pure poison type much like Grimer and Muk. Red decided to keep Pikachu out.

Before Roxie could even give a command, Garbodor was out for the count. It tottered for a few seconds before keeling over.

The look on Roxie's face was priceless. She clearly had not expected Red to be stronger than her, much less _that much stronger_. She had thought that she would have to work a little for a victory. Even after watching Red rip her underlings apart, she didn't realise how strong Red actually was. Or maybe she just was not experienced enough. She did look awfully young. Yes, and this section of Unova had been recently established. She must not have been Gym Leader very long. Though that begged the question that why was an inexperienced trainer made Gym Leader?

Roxie seemed a little uncertain after the first round. Now that Red thought about it, all the signs of inexperience were there; beginning with bluster and overconfidence and leading to uncertainty in the face of adversity. There were two ways how it could end – either Roxie would accept that Red was orders of magnitude stronger than her and that would help her become better, or she wouldn't be able to and that would destroy her.

After her moment of insecurity, Roxie set her face and got a glint in her eye. "It's not over yet! Time to turn this show around for a victory! Let's see how you fare against this!"

The next pokemon to come out was something Red had never seen. It was completely purple in colour with four stubby legs supporting its round body. A rather long neck held its head up, on either side of which protruded arm-like tentacles. A darker purple tail finished off the ensemble. The tail and the tentacles all ended in pincers that looked like they could crack a Cloyster with a snap.

Red took out his pokedex to check out what pokemon this was.

"Drapion, the ogre scorpion pokemon. It takes great pride in its strength, taking down foes without using toxins and finishing them off with poison. Its clawed arms can make scrap out of a car."

As expected, a poison type. He wasn't too worried. Venusaur could produce most types of toxins and his entire team had developed resistances to poison. He let Roxie have the first move this time.

"Drapion! You know what to do!"

Aha! So her Drapion was using a fixed set of moves. She probably started every battle with the same move. Red looked on curiously as Drapion's tail whipped forward. It stopped over the pokemon's head and pressed into it. For a second, Red thought that it was going to poison itself. But the tail claws just applied pressure on Drapion's head for a few seconds. Suddenly, it launched itself at Pikachu much faster than Red thought was possible for a pokemon of that size to be able to move. However, Pikachu was faster than an Electrode doused in grease on a hot skillet. It had no trouble avoiding Drapion. _But where did that speed come from? Is it faster than I thought?_

Once again, Drapion's tail swung up and massaged its head. And again it launched itself at Pikachu. Pikachu scampered out of the way like before. However, this time when it landed the ground shook with the strength of the attack. _How did that happen? This was the exact same attack as before! How did it get stronger? Maybe it's like Fury Cutter or Rollout?_

Red didn't know what type of attack this was, but he was curious. He was also very confident that Pikachu would be able to take down Drapion without any problems. So he decided to wait and see what would happen. _Maybe it is some sort of Metronome?_

As expected, Drapion repeated the tail-massage-on-the-head thing. This time when it attacked, it was even faster than before! Pikachu wasn't really paying attention and so barely managed to scramble to the side. It hissed in anger at Drapion, who sat there nonchalantly. Once again, its tail began the rise up towards its head.

 _First it became faster, then it became stronger. Then faster again. This tail thing just makes it a better battler. It makes it stronger and faster, just like Dragon Dance!_ Red knew then that he needed to end the battle soon or Drapion would become too powerful. Attacks which buffed a pokemon utilised time in a battle, time which could tilt the battle in either way. If the opponent was strong and fast, the time wasted buffing one's pokemon would result in defeat. However, once a pokemon was already buffed it became easier to make subsequent buffs due to the increased strength of the pokemon which elevated its chances of staying in the battle. It was a snowballing effect and very dangerous for opponents. Now Red could see why Roxie was so overconfident. Unless the opposition knew what Drapion was doing, it was easy to underestimate the value of constant buffs. A buff or two wouldn't faze most intermediate trainers, but would surely be the end of the battle against novices. Drapion probably wasn't used in those. Roxie had used her ace against Red.

It was time to finish this. The longer Red waited, the stronger Drapion became. He had only delayed the inevitable due to curiosity. He wanted to know what that attack's effect was. Now that he had figured it out, Red could move on.

"Pikachu…attack…"

And just like that, the battle was over. Roxie stood in place, her shoulders slumped. Red walked over to her and heard her mumbling to herself. But as she heard Red approach, she looked up and her expression was not self-pity like Red had thought. She smiled at him and said, "Well… I guess that means you're strong! Like, really strong! This stinks, but I gave it everything I had and I feel revitalised and refreshed now!" She played an upbeat riff on her guitar to punctuate the statement. She looked up to see Red's impassive face staring at her. "Fine, fine! Here you go – proof that you beat me!"

She peered interestedly as Red pinned the badge beside the one he got from Cheren on the inside of his jacket. "Hmm, so you already defeated Cheren! Unless you flew here on a pokemon, you must have beaten him a few days ago. Probably one of the first to do so. Which would make you…" Her eyes bulged as her hands flew up to cover her gaping mouth. It seemed as if word of his identity was spreading. He put a finger up to his lips to shush her. He didn't need the news spreading, and he definitely didn't need a news entourage following his every movie. Right now he had two goals – finding Hilda was first, a close second was to keep an eye out for those legendries that he had encountered. He doubted they would venture near populated areas, given that they were holed up in a secluded cave when he found them, but one never knew. Their auras were dangerous; he was sure about that at least.

Roxie seemed to be having some sort of fit. Her hands were still clasped in front of her mouth and she was hopping from one foot to the other making weird sounds from behind her hands. Apparently she wanted to say something. _Let's get this over with._ Red ushered her over to a corner of the room, away from her bandmates. She started gushing the second they were out of earshot.

"OH EM GEEE! I can't believe I didn't see it when you defeated those two! Red hat, Pikachu, stupidly overpowered Pikachu…" Luckily she kept her voice down while rambling. Red was slightly annoyed at the attention, but he couldn't help but smile at a fan. "I couldn't believe it when I heard the news that you were in Unova, but I actually cannot believe that you're in my Gym! I watched you on TV when I was a kid, y'know? I'll be damned if I didn't replay your battles with my friends at least a hundred times! I can't believe you're actually here! In my Gym! And I got to battle you!"

Red could see the other trainers looked at them curiously. Roxie was behaving very out of character if her rock star persona was anything to go by, and raising suspicions was the last thing he wanted at the moment.

"Thanks…for the battle…and the support…" he forced out. It was about time he left. He blurted a few more words. "Please…don't tell anyone…"

A.N. – Sorry for the long wait, peeps. I know not much really happened in this chapter except for a battle. But please be patient, the story will have a lot more action ahead. I had originally planned to write each route and city, but the story would just be dull. So I'm going to skip to the fun and cool parts and maybe some flashbacks to cover important scenes. Hope you guys enjoy it and please review. I always love reading reviews and it makes me want to write more. I also want to hear your opinions and criticisms. I want to be a better writer and your feedback really helps!


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

After leaving the Gym, Red still had most of the day left. There was no sense in wasting time, especially with Uxie, Azelf and Mespirit on the loose. And also there seemed to be nothing to do in Virbank. It was a purely industrial city and the only source of entertainment seemed to be the club which Red had just exited. The only path out of the city Red had seen was the one going north. And so north he went.

Upon nearing the gatehouse, he saw a sign saying 'Pokestar Studios ahead'. Pokestar Studios. Sounded like a place where they made movies. The thought of movies took him back to a time long past. He hadn't watched a movie since he had left on his journey, so many years ago. It had been Blue, Green and him, back when they were all friends. Pallet Town didn't have a cinema hall, so Red's mom had taken the three of them to Viridian to watch some movie; Red couldn't even remember which one; it had been that long. All he could recall was that the three kids had had a great time, laughing and chatting away while his mom had looked on indulgently. Soon after that there had been a falling out, and Red didn't have anybody to go with. And a little while later, they had all become trainers. No time for movies since then. And after he had become Champion? Well, it was really difficult to catch the latest summer blockbuster at 7000 metres above sea level.

Red shook himself out of his reminiscing funk. Whatever Pokestar Studios was, he wasn't going there. Retracing his steps, Red ended up a block away from the Gym. On one side was the Gym and on the other was a harbour lined with piers. Boats of all sizes were parked along the piers. Looking back on his trip to Johto, specifically the route between Olivine and Cianwood, Red figured that maybe the next city was across the sea. _There must be a ferry service that runs between the two cities_.

Walking towards the port, Red was unsurprised by the large number of Fighting type pokemon around the area. Virbank was an industrial city. Factories littered the premises; manufacturers of all kinds of products – chemicals, fashion, electronics. There was no way that all these items were being produced for consumption in Virbank. They needed to be transported to the four corners of Unova, and maybe even to other areas of the world. The items would be packed into large metal containers and then loaded onto cargo ships. Hence the Fighting types. They were needed to lift and carry the large containers. A couple of Machokes or Machamps could easily lift a container by themselves. He had seen them in action back in Fuchsia city. Apart from the Fighting types, there must have been numerous other types actually working inside the factories. Poison and Grass types for cosmetics, Bug and Grass for fashion. Fire and Electric types were always involved and Steel to a large extent too. _I wonder what we humans would have done if there had been no pokemon._ Of course, there were broader implications to the question, but in this particular matter, Red supposed that they would have to build some sort of machine or contraption to lift the containers. Twenty humans together probably wouldn't be able to budge a container, let alone lift it. Red had always loved pokemon, and he would never even dream of mistreating them, but such thoughts always brought about a whole new level of appreciation for the beasts. Humans definitely got the better end of this deal. Pokemon would be fine without them, but humans would be much worse off without pokemon. They relied on pokemon for so many things. Agriculture, industry, entertainment. Life would surely be bitter without the noble creatures around.

Upon walking the entire length of the docks, Red finally saw a sign declaring a ferry service. When he reached the boat, there was nobody around. He took a look around, noticing that except for a couple of loiterers, everybody was involved in the hustle and bustle that accompanied a busy port. He took a second look at the two layabouts.

They were dressed in some sort of uniform; grey trousers and shirt with black knee high boots and a black sweater vest. The vest had a symbol above the heart – either a crest or a logo. It was a black and white shield, the colours separated vertically down the middle. A blue P encompassed the centre, with an inverted blue Z in the background. There were two- a male and a female. They were just leaning against the railing, doing nothing. Maybe they were from the company that ran the ferry service, so Red walked up to them and pointed at the ferry.

"What do you want, guy?" The man looked at him and looked away, as if he didn't want to be looked at for long. In Red's experience such behaviour was always suspicious. He continued to indicate the boat. "The ferry? Yeah sorry, I don't know anything about it." The black garbed man turned away from Red to continue what he was doing before – nothing. The woman and he gave each other a look that was clear in its meaning – they didn't want anybody talking to them. Red left them to their own devices and looked around some more. They were being mighty suspicious, but they weren't doing anything wrong, **yet**. Everybody else he could see already had something to do – sailors, dockworkers and their Fighting types, the women who hung out at docks… but there was no sign of any ferry operator.

There was only one option now. Red didn't really want to do this, but it seemed like there was no other choice. Who knew when the ferry operator would return? And it's not like there was anything else to do in this dirty city. Red put two fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply. The heads in a short radius turned towards him and turned back when there was nothing to look at. A few seconds later, all the commotion at the docks came to a standstill. It was a wave of silence, with the area around Red quieting first and then moving outwards. More like a ripple than a wave actually, Red thought, as the descending shadow grew to almost of the size with some of the smaller cruise ships. Luckily Charizard controlled its drop, or else Red was sure the docks would have emptied faster than a tray of food in front of Snorlax.

As Charizard hovered above Red, the two layabouts decided that this was not a place they wanted to be. They took one look at dragon and set off towards the main city, occasionally glancing backwards to make sure that they weren't being followed. They weren't quite running, but even a slight increase in their speed would see them into that classification. Red had never seen anybody walk so fast before.

Turning back to Charizard, Red raised an arm towards the fire type. As it had done hundreds of times before, Charizard grabbed Red's arm and hoisted him onto its back. From the increased height, Red could see that everybody on the docks was facing him and looking up at him, like he was some messiah come to deliver the world from evil. Well, more like looking up at Charizard. But it made him feel uncomfortable. It had _always_ made him feel uncomfortable. He had never liked attention. It made him feel like he was under a lens, his every move being evaluated and judged. Even small groups discomforted him. He was just another person in the world. There were so many out there, people who had had tougher lives than his, people who were better looking, that it made him feel _selfish_. Like he was only helping people or winning battles so that people would notice him and give him money. He just wanted to be a normal person.

As Charizard rose into the air, all eyes trailing the dragon's movement, Red felt his fists clenching. As if anybody else could know. What did they know of all the feelings that ran through him? The thrill of battle, thoughts moving at triple speed to anticipate the opponent's moves and counter them. The excruciation when his pokemon got hurt. The soft warmth of helping people in need, be it something as simple as catching a pokemon or a herculean task like taking down the gambling den in Celadon. What _could_ they know? He caught himself before he got lost in his anger. A more important question was – did they even know? He preferred working behind the scenes, unknown and unexpected. Maybe people didn't even know that he was the one who had taken down Team Rocket. That he was the one who had exhausted the Ponyta so the little girl could catch it. That he was the one who…some things were better left unsaid, even in his own head.

Soon Charizard was at a decent height to fly across the sea. The people on the dock were just dots now. The imbeciles were still staring up at his pokemon, evidenced by the fact that none of them were moving. He nudged Charizard and pointed across the water. Getting away from people should improve his temper. This used to be a regular occurrence. He would go somewhere, people who recognized him would whisper and point. It was like he was a Mankey in a cage. It was embarrassing and frustrating. It was also a wonder that he had never lashed out and these people. And whenever this happened, the only solution for him was to get away from all people and be alone for a while. Charizard was soon cruising along at a few thousand feet and these thoughts were banished from Red's mind.

He looked down and watched the azure waves flowing past. They were too high up to actually see any pokemon, but Red was sure the sea below was teeming with all kinds of water types. There were most likely many that he had never even seen before, which definitely warranted some sort of exploration. He asked Charizard to go lower and the fire type reluctantly obliged, going into a steep dive that stopped just short of crashing into the waves. The fire dragon hovered there, allowing its master time to view to his heart's content.

There were some familiar faces as well as some unknown ones. Red could see schools of Magikarp, Goldeen, Chinchou. There were also some lone Horsea and Quilfish. But the number of unknown species vastly outnumbered the ones he recognised. Pokedex out, he began pointing it at everything he couldn't identify. Basculin, Wailmer, Sharpedo, something called a Feebas which looked suspiciously like a Magikarp. Red wondered if it evolved into a powerhouse like Gyarados. There were some heart shaped pokemon called Luvdisk and some others called Alomomola. Red's heart soared just viewing all the various pokemon. It was a whole ecosystem thriving and he felt absolutely at peace here. He could only see water all around him and it was teeming with so many different pokemon, living in harmony with each other. It was untouched by humans, nature at its finest. The beauty of the entire scene brought tears to his eyes. _Why couldn't the entire world be like this? Everybody at peace with each other, living happy and content lives. No greed, no jealousy, no megalomania._

Knowing he was just building castles in the sky, Red wiped the tears from his face and asked Charizard to fly among the clouds again. The fire type was only too happy to do so. Red knew that there were few things it enjoyed more than flying high and fast. Unfortunately, Red was human, and could not survive at the speeds at which Charizard enjoyed the most.

Within a few moments, part of the horizon started growing. After another few seconds, the top of the silhouette started taking shape. Long, thin rectangles. Buildings. The tallest buildings Red had ever seen. Taller even than the Silph company tower. Red hadn't seen many buildings; indeed, Saffron city had the tallest buildings he had ever seen. But if he were a betting man, Red would have staked his right arm that these were the tallest buildings in the world. As he drew closer, the buildings seemed to grow as well. They must have been over fifty stories high! What must the people in those buildings be feeling when they looked out of the windows? Red knew what it was like being that high. He often rode up at higher heights on Charizard's back, but of course there was a difference. A pokemon was living, breathing; it had a mind and agency. A trainer and pokemon had a special bond. If Red were to fall, Charizard would swoop down to save him and Red had absolutely no doubt about that. The people in the buildings had no such saviour. They would most likely fall to their deaths.

Red was soon at the docks on this side of the sea. It was all along the southern side of the city and divided into multiple piers which, from this height, looked like a hand due their differing sizes. Each 'finger' had many vessels lined up on either side but Red chose none of them for his descent. He flew past the city until he reached the Route closest to the gate. _Nothing like creating a scene when entering a new city, eh?_ It was one thing to show Charizard to a city that he was leaving, but when he was entering one? It would have been impossible for him to remain anonymous.

Charizard put him down as gently as it had lifted him. With a grateful pat on its snout, Red sent it back up into the sky where it would remain until needed. Watching the orange pokemon grow smaller as it rose higher, Red walked towards the next city and new adventures that awaited him. Castelia City, the city which never sleeps.

A/N – Hello again all my readers, I know it has been a while. I was going through a bad case of not wanting to write at all, which I have managed to get over. I would like your opinion on the story guys! Do you like it? Love it? Hate it? Want to guide the direction in which it will go? Please leave your reviews!


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